Finding North & Telling Time
Contents
Finding North Without a Compass
Cloud Movement
You can use the cloud movement to find out in which direction North is as clouds on Taviana always blow from the West to the East. So if you stop and stare at the sky for a while, the direction from which the clouds are traveling is West and the direction towards which they are traveling is East.
Example 1:
If the clouds are traveling from left to right it means that the left side is West,the right side is East so by going straight you will go to the North and by going back you will go South.
Example 2:
If the clouds are traveling from right to left it means that the left side is East, the right side is West so by going straight you will go to the South this time and by going back you will go to the North.
Finding North Using a Watch
Sometimes the sky is clear and there are no clouds, so you will need to find North using a different method. Finding North using a watch is tricky, but once you get the hang of it this trick is indispensable.
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| Keep in mind that this only works in day time and you will need to have shadows enabled in your games graphics settings. |
- First find a watch Error creating thumbnail: File missingand a tall thin object such as a lamp post, pole, electric pylon etc...
- Stand beside the object in such a way so that the hour hand on the watch follows the line of the shadow but so that the tip of the hour hand points to the direction where the sun is.
- Now you will need to imagine a line which goes from the hour which is exactly in the middle of 12 o'clock and the hour that the hour hand is showing. If the hour hand is between 12 and 6 o'clock, on the right hand side of the watch you will have to find the number between 12 and 6. If the hour hand is between 6 and 12 o'clock on the left hand side of the watch you will need to find the number between 6 and 12. The direction in which that line is pointing away from the middle number is North.
Example 1:
In this example the sun is in the bottom right corner. The hour hand is aligned to the shadow being cast by the pole. The hour hand is on 4 o'clock. The middle number between 4 and 12 o'clock is 2 o'clock. hence the imaginary line starts at 2 o'clock, goes through the middle of the watch and come out through 7 o'clock showing us the direction to North.
Finding North Using The Sun
You can orientate yourself using the sun during the day if you know what time it is, for example if you have a watch. We know two facts that never change. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. So if we know its morning time or before noon the sun is in the East. Meaning if you position yourself towards the sun with your right shoulder and walk straight you will be approximately walking North.
If its after noon or evening time we know that the sun is setting in the West so if you turn to the sun with your right shoulder again and walks straight you will be going approximately North.
Finding North Using the Stars
Finding North using the stars is probably the most ancient method of them all and is especially useful to learn because half of every day is night time meaning there is no sun. This method is also priceless if you get lost out at sea with no map or compass and because Taviana is an island republic encircled by the Baltic sea, this is an essential skill that everyone should know.
To find North using the stars you will first need to find a constellation called Ursa Major, also known as The Big Dipper in English or "Velika Medvedica (The Big Bear)" locally on Taviana.
The best way to find it is to look for 3 stars in almost a perfect slanted line. Once you have found them, imagine a box at the bottom of the line made up of 4 stars. This is the big dipper.
Going up from the top most right star of the big dipper will get you to the North Star also known as "Zvezda Severnica" or "Polarka" locally on Taviana which always points exactly North. From the North star you can also identify the constellation Ursa Minor also known as The Little Dipper in English and "Mala Medvedica (The Little Bear)" locally on Taviana.
Telling Time Without a Watch
You can tell the time without a watch if you find out where East and West is. You need to find out where East and West is so you can tell if its morning time or evening time. If the sun is in the East you know its still before noon, if it is in the West you know it is after noon. Then you need to see how high up the sun is.The sun reaches its highest point in the sky at 12 o'clock noon. If the sun is just rising in the East you can estimate its about 5 - 6 o'clock. If it is a little higher you can estimate that is is 7 - 9, if it is very high you can estimate its 10 - 12 and vise versa if the sun is in the West, you can use it to estimate the time based on how close the sun is to sun set.
